Joe Biden, Bill Daley warned of contraceptive backlash

Two top advisers to President Barack Obama — both Catholics — warned him of the potential for controversy over his decision to require religious organizations to cover contraceptives in their health insurance plans.

Vice President Joe Biden and former White House chief of staff Bill Daley both told the president that the decision would be cast as a government intrusion on religious freedom and that it could alienate Catholic voters in swing states, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The decision has whipped up a frenzy of criticism for the president that he’s been battling since the move went public.

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Biden, the first Catholic to serve as vice president, isn’t known for being reticent. But he hasn’t yet spoken publicly about the Jan. 20 decision. His office declined to comment.

The advice coming from Biden and Daley also represented a division among the president’s top advisers, with a group of top women all urging the president to not create an exemption for religious organizations. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, also a Catholic, led the charge, and was backed by several others, including senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and then-Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that some reports about who supported the president’s decision are “inaccurate,” but didn’t make clear whether he was referring to the report about Biden and Daley or others.

Since the Department of Health and Human Services announced that religious employers — including Catholic schools and hospitals, but not churches — would not be exempt from the health care law’s mandate for free access to contraceptives, attacks from religious groups and Republicans have steadily intensified.

Catholics made up more than a quarter of the 2008 electorate — and they picked Obama over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) 54 percent to 45 percent. Large numbers of voters in key battleground states Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan are Catholic.

Why would community agitator and company believe anything Biden said? He's only useful to them as the court jester for an occasional verbal faux pas to help distract the peons from what the agitator's really doing to us.

Does our Constitution guarantee the right of freedom of religion to individual citizens or to organizations? Is it Catholic parishoners who have this right or is it the hierarchy of the Church? The hierarchy of the Catholic Church does not want to sponsor a healthcare plan in there colleges and hospitals that offers women coverage for contraceptives. What about the rights of the employees, Catholic and non-Catholic, to control their healthcare and have access to the same type of plan available from non-religious employers? Should the hierachy of the Catholic Church be in a position to require its employees to accept their belief system, or should the employees be free to exercise their beliefs as they choose? Those individuals religious beliefs may not believe using contraceptives is a violation of their faith.

Biden may be right about *some* Catholic *men*, but he's absolutely wrong about Catholic women. 98% of us have used contraceptives at some time in our lives. Obama is absolutely right -- on this issue, anyway.

I cannot imagine what would give Joe Biden and Bill Daley the remotest idea the Dictator would listen to them - or anyone else. They should have known by now that he governs HIS way - One Man, One Rule - or take a hike.

Dictator Obama needs to be replaced in November 2012 with a President of the United States.

For the most part I support Obama but he stepped into it this time. The Catholic church has the right to not want to pay for the "morning after" pill and other abortive measures. I agree with Rachel Maddow most of the time but she needs to keep her mouth shut on this issue. Based on her comments I doubt she attends any kind of church regularly. I believe that makes a difference because non church goers don't seem to get it. Last I checked this is a free country and if you do not like the health care benefits a company offers, don't work for them. If I were a woman and it was a deal breaker for me that Catholic Social Services as an example, offered me a decent Health Care package but they would not cover the "morning after" pill. If that coverage is that important to me then I wouldn't work for them. The Catholic Church should not be required to pay for abortive measures they find morally offensive. I am a practicing Catholic and regularly vote Democratic but this issue could keep a lot of people like me home on election day. I know a lot of Catholic Hispanics here in Arizona that generally vote Democratic and this issue could keep them home on election day too.

Unlike Republicans who consistently put partisan politics over the good of the country, that Pres. Obama did what was right and was not political pandering should encourage Americans.

Of course, the lying Republicans are spinning the issue as always. Requiring Catholic organizations like hospitals to offer contraception to those non-Catholic employees who desire it is the right thing to do. Nobody is forcing anybody to take advantage of birth control, so stop lying about it. For those who oppose abortion, the single best way to avoid the need for an abortion for an unwanted pregnancy is through birth control and condom use, IUDs, spermicides, Plan-B "morning after pills." Therefore, those that oppose birth control contibute to unwanted pregnancies, including abortions. Also, nobody says the rich Catholic Church has to take government/taxpayer funds and massive tax breaks unavailable to other profit-making businesses.

The Catholic Church, with its anti-birth control religious dogma, has spread poverty, misery, and death to millions around the globe particularly in Latin America (like Haiti a Catholic country), the Phillipines, and Africa. George Bush's HIV/AIDs program of $6 billion (of $19 billion promised) was a giveaway to evangelical Christian NGOs excluding Planned Parenthood and birth control. As a result, Africia is experiencing another "baby boom" and more poverty, misery, starvation, high child mortality and death.

Notice that all these ranting right-wingers are not altuistic, do not work with the poor, the needed, pregnant teens, or welfare mothers. They are the armchair activists who babble and screech and are often filled with hate or are bigoted, but God knows all about it.

As Tom Paine wrote: "Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and the angels know of us."

Don't believe the Dictator in Chief, Obama, that he will modify his position. He will wait until after the election, and If he wins, he will cram this down our throats. This is not about abortion, contraceptives or even a woman's choice. This is purely about the Dictator in Chief Obama's goal to control every aspect of our lives. Impeach the Dictator in Chief NOW!!!

Don't believe the Dictator in Chief, Obama, that he will modify his position. He will wait until after the election, and If he wins, he will cram this down our throats. This is not about abortion, contraceptives or even a woman's choice. This is purely about the Dictator in Chief Obama's goal to control every aspect of our lives. Impeach the Dictator in Chief NOW!!!

Religion is about structure and organization. If you attack the organization, you attack the religion. But this ruling is about freedom for everyone. The problem with mandating things is that the mandate can be broad or narrow. It can start out narrow and be broadened over time.

There is pretty much broad access to birth control at reasonable cost already. There was a story today about a PA univeristy dispensing the abortion pill in a vending machine for $25. Mandating that all insurance policies cover it without co-pays or deductibles is a choice the Democrats have made. This was to pander to an interest group. The Democratic Party is increasingly about centralization of power. I honestly believe that they do not like religion. They do not want competition in teaching values.

If Catholic women use birth control, that is a matter between them and their religion and their God. Their choice is not a government matter. There is no sole"right" way to provide access to contraceptives. Contraceptives are widely available and to people of all income levels. There was no reason to do this, except to challenge the Catholic Church. Whether or not I use birth control, I am offended, but not surprised.